It Starts With a Plan A marketing plan can ignite business success.
Most experts suggest working with someone schooled in marketing to develop that plan. Keep an open mind about who could help you: If money’s tight, it could be a graduate student, or a professional just getting his start. Look to the Chamber of Commerce for resources. Ask your colleagues. You can spend $25,000 for a marketing plan, but you don’t have to.
Still, if you’re doing it, there’s no point in skimping. Make sure you pay enough to get what you’re looking for. Your marketing plan will, at the bare minimum, assess strengths and weaknesses, including those of competitive firms. You can assess competitive firms through their promotional information, their Web site, and by checking permits to see what jobs they’re getting.
Through these efforts, you’ll find points of differentiation for branding and marketing. The plan will help determine the right marketing mix to attract your target customers. Your marketing plan will help develop a brand, which you will later convey through a logo and materials that prompt prospects to action.
A marketing plan asks questions; the answers help you find differentiation.
Clients
- What do clients earn each year?
- What is their average age?
- Do you have a client database? How do you use it?
- How do you track leads?
Image
- What’s your perception of your image?
- How do you know it’s right? Have you surveyed clients?
- What do you want to change about that perception?
Offerings
- Which jobs provide the most satisfaction at the best profit?
- What new products and services do you plan to offer?
- What products and services need better awareness? What are their strengths?
Competition
- What do you do better than the competition? What does your competition do better than you?
- What’s your plan to improve weak areas?
- Which five competitors bid against you regularly and win, or own large market share?
Marketing
- What are your busiest months?
- What media do you use to reach prospects? What advertising?
- What form of communication has proven most successful?
- Describe failed marketing efforts, and explain why they failed, if you know.
Once you’re clear about what you produce, what you provide, what benefits you bring, and how you stack up against competitors, you need to figure out how to target your audience.
You have to know the pros and cons of the territory you serve, and know customers through profiling their ages, hobbies, occupations, number of children, etc.
Then you have to know what customers want, by asking clients and prospects about products or services like yours.
The marketing plan should suggest the tools you’ll use to achieve your objectives. The list could include radio/TV, the Internet, billboards, direct mail, home shows, signs, print media, public relations, and so on. The mix is as important as the tools.